Jean-Baptiste’s Disruptive Electrifly-in Win

Dean Sigler Batteries, Electric Aircraft Components, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Jean-Baptiste Loiselet is a disruptive force seemingly immune to conventional thinking.  Funding what he calls a “hybrid” aircraft from his life savings, he has flown his solar sailplane around France, set a world altitude record for electric microlight aircraft, demonstrated its airworthiness at the 2024 Paris Air Show, and recently won his third Electrifly-in award at Bern, Switzerland. The term “disruptive” is one of esteem in high-tech America, but translated into French, the hashtag “rupture” leads to Jean-Baptiste’s LinkedIn site or even to his Des Ailes pour la Planète (Wings for the Planet) website.  The following, a translation of the original French, shows how words can be misapprehended. “⚡️ Rupture or not rupture?  (disruption or not disruption?  Your editor’s interpretation.) “🏆 For the third year in a row, I’m at the top of the podium in Electrifly-In Switzerland for the sole reason that I’m the only one in my category: hybrid. “🌱 Hybrid because the Sol.Ex. is a bit of …

H55 Does a Grand Tour of America

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H55, the Swiss electric light aircraft spin-off of the Solar Impulse Foundation under Andre’ Borschberg’s leadership, has toured America from sunny Florida to sunny California and back to New York’s Hamptons. H55’s Tour of America While Beta’s Alia is making the Grand Tour of Europe, the H55-powered Bristel B25 Energic has made its own Grand Tour of the New World. Completing a “landmark tour” of America, H55’s Bristell B23 Energic went literally from sea to shining sea, visited eight states, and proved its Electric Propulsion System (EPS) to be reliable and trouble-free.  According to H55, the small craft “completed 192 all-electric passenger flights, and [visited] 25 airports across Florida, Alabama, Arizona, Nevada, California, Colorado, Wisconsin, and New York. In Florida alone, the little Energic managed 14 Airport-to-airport flights, 36 demonstration flights, and 12 Static events.  H55 hosted 30 Certified Flight Instructors (CFI and CFII), aeronautical and aviation professors at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Liberty University, and Florida Institute of Technology, two aerospace …

Solarstratos’ New Altitude Record

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Raphael Domjan’s SolarStratos set a new world altitude record for solar-powered aircraft, 9,521 meters, or 31,237 feet, on August 12, 2025. That CBS News and other press outlets saw fit to cover the event is a significant change in coverage from just having the normal technical details explained in the aviation press. The network explained, “The SolarStratos plane made the landmark flight from Sion airport in southwest Switzerland on Tuesday, taking advantage of warm air thermals to go beyond the record that has stood for 15 years.  (That record was held by Andre’ Borschberg in the Solar Impulse.) “The certified altitude record for a solar plane stands at 9,235 meters, or 30,298 feet. “The achievement is ‘one of those unforgettable peaks that define great human and technological adventures,’ the SolarStratos mission said in a statement.” CBS noted the moment when Solarstratos crossed paths with a commercial airliner, “a powerful symbol of what the decarbonized aviation of tomorrow might look like.” …

ElFly Looks to the Future

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Elfly, the recently-formed Norwegian aircraft company, looks to a future of responsible, emission-free flight with its nine-to-thirteen passenger amphibians.  Three partners, Eric Lithun (Chief Executive Officer), Tomas Brødreskift (Chief Technology Officer), and Eirik Sandal (Chief Financial Officer), are dedicated to making electric flight along the seaside an everyday occurrence. Lithun was interviewed about the new machine and explained its benefits. Note the humility of the team’s vision and their willingness to learn during the development process.  As Lithun explains, they can save funds by staying in the nine-passenger mode and expanding with market opportunities.  That market may be imminent, with recent announcements of letters of intent Recent interest jumped after a “dry spell” during which Lithun had difficulty finding interest in his “niche” seaplane.  That now seems over with Danish operator Nordic Seaplanes signing an agreement for 15 Noemis.     This would make Nordic, the only European operator of scheduled seaplane operations, as Elfly’s first customer.  Contingent on Noemi’s certification …

Solar Airship One – a Grand Voyage Awaits

Dean Sigler Announcements, Electric Powerplants, Fuel Cells, hydrogen, Hydrogen Fuel, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation 3 Comments

Having circumnavigated the world by balloon and solar-powered aircraft, Bertrand Piccard is ready to make a third around-the-world flight – this time in Solar Airship One, powered by the sun and hydrogen fuel cells.  Able to make the 40,000 kilometer (24,855 mile) trip in one gigantic hop, the 151 meters (495.4 feet) long craft will be borne aloft on 50,000 cubic meters (1,766,000 cubic feet) of helium. Unlike his lonely stints at the controls of Solar Impulse 2, Piccard will be joined by two worthy co-pilots; Dorine Bourneton, “The first disabled woman to become an aerobatic pilot (Bourneton was severely injured at age 16 in an aircraft accident) and Michel Tognini, a former French Air Force fighter pilot and European Space Agency astronaut (Tognini has been twice to space, in 1992 and 1999).”  The Craft Its helium sealed in 15 large gas bags that emulate the shape of the airship, the ship carries 50,000 cubic meters (1.77 million cubic feet) …

Piper Archer Trainers to Go Electric

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CAE, a Canadian high-tech company, H55, Safran, and Piper Aircraft have announced a joint venture to make the popular Piper Archer® trainer electric.  With 28,000 Archers in service, a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) would replace the current Lycoming IO-360 or Continental CD-155 Diesel engines with a Safran electric motor. The Players CAE CAE, started 75 years ago by a Canadian war hero, pledges itself to making the world a safer place.  “Our vision is to be the worldwide partner of choice in civil aviation, defense and security, and healthcare by revolutionizing our customers’ training and critical operations with digitally immersive solutions to elevate safety, efficiency and readiness.” The organization runs large flight training programs and designs and operates banks of flight simulators.  It plans on converting 60 percent of its Piper fleet worldwide to electric power. This is all part of a larger environmental and social program as reported in their Annual Activity and Corporate Social Responsibility Report.  “To further …

Harbor Air’s eBeaver, MagniX’s Motor, H55’s Batteries

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In our last blog entry, we discussed a three-partner enterprise with an American airframe propelled by a French motor powered by British batteries.  In this round, we have a Canadian airframe powered by an Australian/American motor driven by Swiss batteries.  These international collaborations may pay off in big ways. Datelined Vancouver, B.C., Everett, WA, and Sion, Switzerland, the joint press release shows a strong and well-organized partnership in action.  “Harbour Air, North America’s largest seaplane airline; magniX the company powering the electric aviation revolution; and H55, the spin off from Solar Impulse, producing highly efficient certified battery packs, announced a partnership to certify the world’s first electric Beaver (eBeaver) commuter airplane through a supplemental type certificate (STC) program.”  H55 is a part, also, of the Solar Impulse Foundation, organized to promote “1000+ efficient and profitable solutions to protect the environment.”  Their collaboration with Harbour Air and magniX is one of those solutions. Even though a small airline (40 aircraft) flying …

Austrians, Swiss, Chinese Launch Three New Electric Aircraft

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Three companies with divergent backgrounds launched three new electric aircraft in the last few months. 1973, and Its Descendants are Still Electric As noted in the blurb for its historic YouTube video for its first electric flight 46 years ago, “HB Flugtechnik is the pioneer in electric flight. The world’s first electric powered flight took place on October 21st, 1973 in Austria. 50 years later this company is still in business and doing better than ever. Given, that we talk about the aviation business, this is an outstanding and remarkable achievement. Today, HB Flugtechnik located at the now newly refurbished airfield Hofkirchen LOLH is not only the major MRO (Maintenance, Repair Organization or Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) for aircraft in Austria, it is still working on the new frontier of electric flight.” In a 2012 presentation at the AVT-209 Workshop in Lisbon, Portugal in 2012, Dr. Martin Hepperle of the DLR Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology in Braunschweig, Germany …

Borschberg, H55 Introduce BRM Energic

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Leadership is about empowering people to make them owner of their world, and constantly challenging them to make them extend their known territory.” Andre’ Borschberg Andre’ Borschberg’s current challenge, shared with Bertrand Piccard, involves their Solar Impulse Foundation, whose goal is to foster 1,000 solutions “that protect the environment in a profitable way.”  “Profitable” helps produce results, and with Piccard being a psychiatrist, ensures the self-interest that drives many also drives a certain level of altruism in saving the environment. Borschberg and two other Solar Impulse leaders, Sébastien Demont and Gregory Blatt, founded H55 and produced a modification of the Silence Twister, a single-seat aircraft with a Siemens motor.  Their latest conversion, following their philosophy of, “Building up experience by flying existing airplanes with electric propulsion,” uses what looks like an Emrax motor in a Bristell Energic two-seat training craft. “Single Engine Dual Battery Pack System” Energic is an electric variant of a Czech Republic Light Sport Aircraft, with an …

Solar Impulse Foundation Seeks 1,000 Solutions

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Andre’ Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, founders and pilots of Solar Impulse, have founded an important outgrowth of their globe-spanning mission – The World Alliance for Efficient Solutions.  With almost 500 members and seeking 1,000 with responsible and profitable solutions the two are working to gain investors in literally saving the world. Bertrand Piccard sees a current vision of a world that’s out of phase with technological reality.  In an editorial, he mused: “When I was flying with my solar plane over the Atlantic Ocean, I remember looking at the sun that was giving energy to my four electric motors and their huge propellers. There was no noise, no pollution, no fuel… and I could fly forever. At one moment I thought, “This is science fiction, I’m in the future.” And then I realized, “No, it’s completely wrong, I’m in the present. This is what the technologies of today already allow me to do. It’s the rest of the world that …